Recently, the United States and Australia have concluded a free trade agreement. Chapter 17 of the agreement includes some rather detailed provisions relating to copyright, trademark and patent law (e.g. in regards to copyright terms and anti-circumvention regulations). This is just another instance of the recent trend in the U.S. administration to conclude bilateral free trade agreements that are laden with IP provisions. In an area that is full of truly international agreements (such as the various treaties administered by WIPO and the TRIPs agreement), it is not totally obvious what the goal of covering as many countries as possible with similar bilateral IP-related agreements is.
"Bilateral" IP treaties
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